{"id":26038,"date":"2025-09-16T15:49:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T15:49:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/26038\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T15:49:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T15:49:06","slug":"film-icon-robert-redford-dies-at-89-dw-09-16-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/26038\/","title":{"rendered":"Film icon Robert Redford dies at 89 \u2013 DW \u2013 09\/16\/2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

Robert Redford<\/a>, the Oscar-winning\u00a0director, and actor, has died at the age of 89.<\/p>\n

Redford died “at his home at Sundance in the mountains of Utah, the place he loved, surrounded by those he loved,” his publicist Cindi Berger said.<\/p>\n

He passed away in his sleep at his home in the mountains of Utah, according to\u00a0his publicist Cindi Berger.<\/p>\n

Redford rose to fame in films like “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” and “All the President’s Men,”\u00a0using his star power to spotlight American culture and politics.<\/p>\n

He later became a champion of independent cinema and was a vocal advocate for environmental causes.<\/p>\n

\"ARedford starred in ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’ with Paul NewmanImage: Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation\/Collection Christophel\/RnB\/picture alliance <\/p>\n

Sundance Kid becomes indie\u00a0champion<\/p>\n

Born on August 18, 1936, in Santa Monica, California, Redford\u00a0has always been independently minded. His fame and success never drove him from one Hollywood party to the next.<\/p>\n

Redford focused on doing his own thing,\u00a0by consciously choosing roles that had meaning for him, as well as the directors he worked with.<\/p>\n

Initially written off as “just another California blond,”\u00a0Redford defied expectations with his rugged charisma and enduring appeal, becoming one of Hollywood’s most bankable leading men and a beloved global icon for over 50\u00a0years.<\/p>\n

Redford was one of the biggest stars of the 1970s with such films as “The Candidate,” “All the President’s Men” and “The Way We Were.”<\/p>\n

Redford capped off\u00a0the decade with the best director Oscar for 1980’s “Ordinary People,” which also won best picture that same year.<\/p>\n

His roles ranged from Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward, a mountain man in “Jeremiah Johnson,” and a double agent in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.<\/p>\n

He used the money from his acting to co-found the Sundance Institute\u00a0for aspiring independent filmmakers,\u00a0from which the renowned annual film festival gets its name.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The industry was pretty well controlled by the mainstream, which I was a part of. But I saw other stories out there that weren’t having a chance to be told and I thought, ‘Well, maybe I can commit my energies to giving those people a chance.’ As I look back on it, I feel very good about that,” Redford told the Associated Press in 2018.<\/p>\n

\"RobertRedford and Dustin Hoffman played reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein in the film ‘All the President’s Men’ showing how the Washington Post uncovered the Watergate scandalImage: picture-alliance\/Mary Evans Picture Library<\/p>\n

Tributes to Redford pour in\u00a0<\/p>\n

Actor Marlee Matlin was one of the first to pay tribute to Redford, stating that her Oscar-winning film “Coda” would never have received the attention it did without the Sundance festival.<\/p>\n

“Our film, CODA, came to the attention of everyone because of Sundance. And Sundance happened because of Robert Redford. A genius has passed,” she wrote on X.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meryl Streep, who starred with Redford in “Out of Africa,” said in a statement, “One of the lions has passed. Rest in peace my lovely friend.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

A committed environmental activist, Redford also fought to preserve the natural landscape and resources of Utah, where he lived.<\/p>\n

Former US President Barack Obama<\/a> awarded Redford the US Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016, saying he was admired not just for his acting, “but for having figured out what to do next.”<\/p>\n

“He has supported our National Parks and our natural resources as one of the foremost conservationists of our generation,” Obama said at the time.<\/p>\n

\"USRedford endorsed Barack Obama for a second term despite reservations over some of the former president’s environmental policies [FILE: November 22, 2016]Image: Yuri Gripas\/REUTERS<\/p>\n

Although he never showed an interest in entering politics, he often espoused a liberal viewpoint.<\/p>\n

In a 2017 interview, during the first presidency of Donald Trump<\/a>, he told Esquire magazine that “politics is in a very dark place right now” and that Trump should “quit for our benefit.”<\/p>\n

Despite this, Trump on Tuesday said, “I thought he was great.”<\/p>\n

“Robert Redford had a series of years where there was nobody better,” Trump told reporters as he left the White House after a journalist told him that Redford had died.<\/p>\n

Redford leaves behind his wife Sibylle Szaggars and two daughters.<\/p>\n

Edited by: Wesley Rahn<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Robert Redford, the Oscar-winning\u00a0director, and actor, has died at the age of 89. Redford died “at his home…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26039,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[430,156,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-26038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}